posted 12-18-2008 08:46 PM
I've got a "mystery" that I'd like to put forward for all the Gemini experts in the crowd to consider. In the "extras" with the recent "Shadow of the Moon" DVD there are a couple of black-and-white film sequences that were obviously filmed inside the cabin during a Gemini flight - but the astronaut depicted is not recognizable to me or to another expert that I showed the film still to.

In the Astronaut Hall of Fame Museum near KSC, they have a camera on display that is labeled the 'Pilot Observer Camera' for Gemini long-duration flights. It is a Milliken 16 mm film camera model DBM-7 (that one NASA document referred to as a 'panel camera,' but I could not find a suitable explanation).

I am assuming that this is the camera that filmed the b&w sequences in the "Shadow of the Moon" extras.

Are any of our resident Gemini experts familiar with the Pilot Observer Camera or the films that it produced? There are some b&w films showing the Gemini 7 astronauts conducting some of their in-cabin experiments, and I assume these films were made by the Milliken DBM-7 camera.

I have a photo of the camera in the museum and a film still of the unidentified Gemini astronaut that I can send to those who are interested. Thanks.

Joel Powell

atlas5guyMember

Posts: 31From: Registered: Jun 2007

posted 12-21-2008 11:54 AM
Here are the photographs:

space1Member

Posts: 593From: Danville, Ohio, USARegistered: Dec 2002

posted 12-21-2008 01:14 PM
The Pilot Observer Camera was a feature of the Mercury control panel, mounted in the lower left section of the main panel. Its angled lens orientation is a result of the mounting location and the direction of the astronaut's head. The camera has given us the famous footage of the Mercury astronauts during their flights.